I had intended to program this evening. I really wanted to get a pause menu implemented. However, I ran across the new RadioLab episode called Worth. The first two stories are most certainly not happy stories. They ask how much is a life worth. How much are we willing to pay to keep people alive and healthy and how do you compensate someone for the death of a loved one. The third was about the value of nature.

There was an element of this that I wanted to talk about. Inspired by the discussion of the price of Sovaldi. The question is how much should a company charge for a drug that cures a chronic disease. Its an important question but one that can't be answered quickly. I wrote an essay on the issue of Sovaldi in particular and generalized the question to address the fundamental issues that lead to the incredibly high prices we see for many drugs not just Sovaldi. You can read it on my Writing Page or follow this link.

I'm putting a shortened version of the article here, kind of a "too long, didn't read" synopsis. If you're interested in how society can manage the cost of health care differently I encourage you to read the full article without reading this synopsis first. Click the Read More button below for the synopsis.

Definitely have a listen to the RadioLab episode, its very good, as all of their work is.

Society currently has to pay, in the form of increased health insurance premiums for every drug developed, both those that succeed and those that fail. Society has to pay for those that fail since investors will demand a higher upside potential for their investments the more risk they have to take on. This results in incredibly high costs when a drug is first released, those high costs continue until generic companies can start producing the drug. This results in people not getting the treatment they need. The drug companies have to charge a lot of money at one time to recoup their investments and earn the large amount of profit demanded by their investors. To resolve this problem the government should directly invest in the development of drugs. This would spread the costs of development over long periods of time so that the costs are not felt all at one time.